Farewell to two feline friends (not dead, just moving)

Tomorrow, two of my Songbird's three cats will follow her across the seas. After much phone calling and faxing and e-mailing back and forth between her, me and the pet shipper (Animal Land Pet Movers, if you're wondering; I highly recommend them...and so does our vet), Lilith ("Lily") and Rosita ("Rosie") will be put on a cargo plane at 12:30 or so in the afternoon on Tuesday, and on Thursday at around 7:30 pm Nairobi time, will be reunited with their owner.

Ari, Lily's son (now approaching both the age of eight and the preposterous weight of 23 lbs.), will remain with me; SB jokes that we're setting up gender-segregated households. They have never been parted since she first got them from a Philadelphia shelter six years ago; now they will be apart from each other for at least two years.

I have finally gotten all the ducks in a row today for their shipment; after a frustrating trip all the way out to Conyers (40 minutes' drive each way; you'd think the USDA animal export folks could have an Atlanta office that was actually in Atlanta!) only to wait 90 minutes for a fax of a signature from the vet that an especially anal bureaucrat demanded, and assembly of two new regulation carriers (actually designed for dogs, but needed to match the size requirements), I am ready to drop them off with the pet shipper's driver tomorrow.

Now if only I could handle the rest of my life this well.

Kermit and friends find a new home...very near me

Jim Henson, the late, great and dearly missed, was an early and enthusiastic backer of the Center for Puppetry Arts, our very own museum of the felt-and-fabric set here in Hotlanta. So imagine my delight to hear this news that his family has decided to establish the definitive permanent exhibit of his creations at CPA.

Yeah, sure, it won't open for another five years, but ya gotta admit it does give the City Too Busy to Hate (and Too Choked With Traffic to Move) one more cultural feather in its cap. This, after having exhibited original puppets from Rankin-Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special last winter, cements CPA's rep as a world-class facility for the study and promotion of puppetry.

So, who's your favorite Henson character? Mine's Rowlf, the piano-playing pooch ("I'm no Heifetz, but I get by").